“I know I’ll make a difference.”
This past Saturday, November 9th, YLI put on Youth Fest, an event where youth from throughout Fresno County had the opportunity to get to know each other, learn about issues in their community, and exchange ideas about ways to solve those problems. Young people came from all over to kick off our major campaigns for the year. There was incredible youth-to-youth learning going on, as we witnessed young people facilitating trainings on Health, Neighborhoods, Schools, H.O.P.E., Boys and Men of Color, and the Committee for the Presidential Youth Council. Youth voted on messaging for the social norms campaign for the year, signed up to play a role in the schools and neighborhoods campaigns, and discussed the need to empower young people to prepare them for college and current and future success.
Overwhelmingly, participants had an awesome experience at Youth Fest. 100% of the participants said that they improved their connections with people that they want to work with in the future, and 94% said that their sense of the power of youth working together increased (with the rest saying their sense stayed the same).
“I feel like I could make any change after this.”
Overall, the Youth Fest was a fantastic experience. It is clear that the youth of Fresno County are ready and able to create true social change in their communities.
